The present invention relates generally to heat sinks and in particular to a method for producing high efficiency heat sinks.
Processors and related computer components are becoming more powerful with increasing capabilities, resulting in increasing amounts of heat dissipated from these components. Simultaneously, package and die sizes of the components are decreasing or remaining the same, which increases the amount of heat energy given off by the component for a given unit of surface area. Furthermore, as computer related equipment becomes more powerful, more and more components are being placed inside the equipment which is also decreasing in size, resulting in additional heat generation in a smaller volume of space. Increased temperatures can potentially damage the components of the equipment, or reduce the lifetime of the individual components and the equipment.
Heat sinks have been used to assist in dissipating heat from the processor and other heat producing components within a housing. The overall size of the heat sink is limited by the volume constraints of the housing. To maximize the amount of heat dissipated from the heat producing components, there is a need to maximize the surface area of the heat sink without increasing the volume of the heat sink, such as by maximizing pin density on the heat sink. However, current manufacturing methods of heat sinks, such as machining or casting, are limited in the ability to maximize the surface area. Furthermore, some of these methods can be expensive.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need for a more efficient method to produce heat sinks. There is also a need for a heat sink which maximizes heat dissipation capabilities. What is also needed is a way to produce low cost heat sinks with higher convection surface area to heat sink volume ratio.
A method for producing a heat sink includes extruding a first material in a second material, and the extrusion is cut into a billet. The second material is removed from a portion of the billet to produce a heat sink having a base and a plurality of fins. The first material, in one embodiment, is set in a pattern within the second material. In one embodiment, the second material is removed from the billet by placing the billet into a chemical bath. In another embodiment, the heat sink is rinsed to remove chemical residue from the heat sink. Optionally, mounting holes are stamped into the base, and a mounting surface is ground on the heat sink.
In another embodiment, a method for dissipating heat includes forming a heat sink by disposing fin material through a die, embedding the fin material into a base plate, and coupling the heat sink with a heat producing component. In one embodiment, the fin material is sheared by a shear plate prior to embedding the fin material into the base. Optionally, the shear plate and/or the die physically supports the fin material while it is embedded within the base plate. In another embodiment, the base is heated prior to the entry of the fins. The base is also provided with dimples to accept entry of the fins.
In one embodiment, the fin material comprises a continuous length of material, such as copper wire. In another embodiment, the fin material comprises cut-to-length fins. In yet another embodiment, the fins of the above heat sinks have circular, square, or rectangular cross-section.